In order to simulate being present in an environment, images of the environment are often captured, encoded and then used as textures by a playback device to give the user a sense of being present in the environment where the images are captured. The images of the environment maybe stereoscopic images with left and right eye images being captured to allow a user to observe the environment in 3D and/or can be non-stereoscopic images.
Given transmission constraints, e.g., network data constraints, associated with content being streamed, it may not be possible to encode and transmit the images of the environment at the full resolution at which they are captured.
While a full 360 degree view of an environment maybe captured, in reality some portions of the environment maybe less important then others to a viewer. For example in the case of a basketball game or soccer match portions of the environment where the ball is maybe more important to a viewer than the ground.
Some portions of an environment are often generally less important than others, for example the ground beneath a user's location at the event which may correspond to a seat in a section of the stands or a back portion of the environment tends to be less important than a forward view of a playing field during a sporting event. However, sometimes a particular portion may change in importance due to action at that portion of the environment. Furthermore within a large portion of the environment such as a forward viewing portion, different portions may have different importance.
Given that it is often not possible to transmit image content at the full resolution it is captured, it would be desirable if methods and/or apparatus where developed which allow for portions of an environment to be prioritized and the content encoded taking into consideration the priority of particular portions of the environment at a given time, e.g., frame time to which an image being coded corresponds.